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List Price: $19.95 | | Label: WGBH BOSTON
Salesrank: 60407
Released: April 20, 2004 |
| Our Price: $10.72 |
| Used Price: $6.99 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
From Paula Milne, the multi-award winning writer of The Politician's Wife, comes this taut psychological thriller starring Clive Owen (Croupier, Closer) and Claire Skinner (Inspector Morse). Ross Tanner (Owen) is a hotshot police detective who lives for the thrill of the chase—while desperate to conceal a terrifying secret: he's losing his vision. Competitive graduate officer D.I. Catherine Tully (Skinner) is drafted into Tanner's crime unit to help investigate an apparently motiveless murder of a nineteen-year-old college student. Soon enough Catherine realized the nature of Tanner's dreadful secret and an uneasy alliance is formed between them. She will be his eyes, on certain conditions—terms which will enhance her career prospects. As Tanner's relationship with the world becomes increasingly fragile he learns that there is more to murder than meets the eye. Insight prevails over eyesight as he discovers that success and survival will depend on the use of all his senses. Special DVD features include: link to the Mystery! Web site; scene selections; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired. On one DVD9 disc. Region coding: All regions. Audio: Dolby stereo. Screen format: Letterboxed.
Description of Second Sight 1:
Taut, styish, and smart, Second Sight is the rare detective thriller with a brutal poetry in its premise. Detective Chief Inspector Ross Tanner (Clive Owen) is a maverick cop and workaholic who solves crimes by putting his faith in facts he can see for himself. What more cruel irony could beset him than a slow and irreversible loss of vision? While a rare disorder attacks his cornea, causing intermittent blindness and hallucinations, Tanner conceals his problem in the pursuit of a murderer who brutally beat a 19-year-old man to death. The suspects are largely people the victim knew well, including his mother (Phoebe Nicholls) and stepfather (Stuart Wilson), the nanny (Louise Atkins) of his young sister, a gardener (Eddie Marsan) who supplied him drugs, and an uncle (Stuart Wilson again, playing twins) who has allegedly been out of the country for years but in fact has been keeping a low profile in London. Tanner faces an added strain, initially, when he is partnered with a female detective, Catherine Tully (Claire Skinner), whose reliance on intuition is the antithesis of his own methods. Nevertheless, the two make a bargain after Skinner deduces Tanner's medical troubles: she'll be his eyes if he promises to give her equal credit for apprehending the killer. Utterly engrossing, Second Sight is part of that tradition of somber crime thriller done so well on British television, from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to Prime Suspect. Stars Claire Skinner (Sleepy Hollow) and Clive Owen carry the load exceptionally well. Owen (Closer, Bent), who looks like a slightly more rugged version of Kevin Costner and is instantly likable onscreen, conveys Tanner's necessary conversion to a more intuitive approach to police work with great care. Owen has looked like a candidate for international stardom for a while, and Second Sight certainly reinforces that perception. --Tom Keogh
Second Sight 1 Reviews:
A Well-Done Series (but hide your Scoobie Snacks!) 
2007-08-18 - This enjoyable mystery's strengths are commented on quite ably by the reader reviews on this site.
Permit me to point out two minor complaints which have not been brought up:
1.) Clive Owen's character suffers from a vision impairment. So why, oh why, do we also get subjected to auditory hallucinations as well? Are the filmmakers just trying to use every trick in their bag to heighten suspense? This happened so frequently, I got a bit annoyed.
2.) Why must every mystery end with the villain toying with the hero and explaining in full every last detail of any plot developments that are still murky? This was a tired ploy in every Scoobie Doo episode I ever watched, and I was saddened to see it employed here as well.
FANTASTIC CLIVE OWEN 
2006-02-25 - This is a two part mystery show. Clive is head of the investigation of a murder. He is losing his sight and has to depend on his female partner to help him solve the crime.
He does not want to have to depend on her for anything but as his sight fails he is forced to depend on her as she leads him around trying to not have anyone notice that he is going blind.
Clive is fantastic in almost every movie that he makes and this is no exception. He has such charisma and personality and good looks. He is one of my favorite actors.
This is well worth watching more than once.
Regina
Ophthalmically correct
2006-02-06 - All of the good things have been said: nuanced performance by Clive Owen and Claire Skinner, riveting mystery, charismatic and now rising star in USA, interesting rhythm and plot, similar tenor to Prime Suspect. I would add that it is ophthalmologically correct. I transcribed over 10,000 ophthalmic visit letters and never came up with AZOOR because I did minimal retinology. Found it in the Ophthalmic dictionary. These writers got one over on me.
Second Sight 1, Clive Owen 5 
2004-08-20 - There is something about this guy I cannot put my finger on. He is not as pretty as Ewan McGregor or Jude Law but definitely more versatile than both combined. From Croupier to I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, he looks different in each role. Some of his characters are more repulsive than attractive, but still he never lost my interest.
Clive Owen is Hot
2004-06-24 - It's a predictable mystery but it's well packaged and, as I said, Clive Owen is hot! There's some intensely erotic moments in this series that make it worth watching even though the average mystery fan will have the plot all figured out way before the climax.
Yes, I've admitted elsewhere that I am incredibly shallow at times, and this is one of them.
